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Dr. George Ioannou is Professor of Production & Operations Management at the Athens University of Economics and Business. He is the Director of the MBA International Program, and Head of the Operations & ERP Systems Center within the Management Science Laboratory. He served as Assistant Professor at the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering of Virginia Tech, directing the Manufacturing Systems Integration Laboratory. Dr. Ioannou received his Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, and his M.Sc./DIC in Industrial Robotics and Manufacturing Automation from Imperial College, London, UK. He was a Graduate Research Assistant at the Institute for Systems Research of the University of Maryland at College Park, USA, where he received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. His research concentrates on the quantitative and analytical study of business systems, and merges operations research tools with modern information technology to address open problems faced by today's complex enterprises and supply chain networks. His work has been sponsored by several research organizations and private companies from the US, Europe and Greece (Toshiba, Motorola, Siemens, Cyclon, Avin, SAS Institute, NSF, European Commission, General Secretariat for Research and Technology, Ministry of Development, Ministry of Education, etc.), while his publications have appeared in various archival journals and cover topics ranging from facility and material handling system design and operation, to Enterprise Resource Planning Systems. He has consulted for many companies and public organizations, and was responsible for executive and educational seminars in his areas of expertise, both in the US and Greece. He has been honored by many Teaching Excellence Awards for his MBA courses, has been recognized by the Board of the Athens Chamber of Industry and Commerce, and he is the recipient of the Microsoft Excellence in Education Award. He is a member of the Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE), having chaired the Research and Development Committee, and serves as a member of the Editorial Board of the international journal Production Planning & Control. He has been an Executive Member of the board of Directors of Hellenic Railroads SA, Chairman of the Department of Management Science and Technology, and member of Microsoft's Educational Advisory Board.